Detection of adblockers illegal according to European Commission

Under European law, it is illegal for websites to run scripts on users’ devices without permission to find out if visitors use adblockers. That is what the European Commission itself stated.

Privacy advocate Alexander Hanff suspected that ad blocker detection was illegal and asked the European Commission for a ruling. He received a response in the form of a letter, which he partly posted on Twitter posted. Article 5.3 of the so-called ePrivacy Directive states that ‘the use of electronic communication networks to retrieve or store information from users’ equipment is only permitted if clear and complete information about this and a request for permission has been made’. The cookie law is an example of this.

Hanff therefore suspected that adblocker detection scripts also fall under the category of storing information with users and that running them without notice and permission is therefore not allowed. The European Commission has now confirmed this. The Commission has also made it clear that running server-side scripts is a form of information retrieval.

Hanff says he plans to bring charges against multiple EU member states with the support of the European Commission’s formal opinion. He also wants to set up a website in the coming week that will keep a list of all websites and publishers that do not comply with these regulations. Users will also be able to supplement the information on the site themselves. In this way, he wants to make it easier to file the charges.